


Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies In Your Bed

by cricket_aria



Category: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Video Game)
Genre: Blood Drinking, F/M, Vampire Politics, vampire sex drives or the lack there-of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 00:16:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20898497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/pseuds/cricket_aria
Summary: Mercurio has a few questions about the way the Fledgling acts when discussing his boss.





	Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies In Your Bed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mieldyne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mieldyne/gifts).

“Do you have something you’re holding over the new kid, boss? Or hit her with any…” Mercurio waved his hand expressively around his head rather than finishing the thought. 

LaCroix paused in slicing open his palm, considering for a moment leaving Mercurio to go without that month for questioning him, then allowed his blood to fall into a cup. He always took care with the amount he allowed the man to drink, aiming for the delicate balance that would allow him to keep his own mind enough to remain a useful tool rather than becoming so enthralled to the blood that he became hapless without exact instructions. It would, he supposed, send the incorrect message to punish him for making use of the free will that LaCroix allowed him to maintain. “I’ve done nothing beyond sparing her life and giving her shelter. If she’s showing the correct amount of appreciation for my leniency, than at least someone is.

“Appreciation… yeah, that’s one word for it.” Mercurio accepted the cup that was offered to him, only briefly letting a look linger on the still oozing cut on LaCroix’s palm. He’d been trained well enough to realize that, hypocritical though some might find it, LaCroix preferred not letting humans put their mouths on him to suckle their fill. He raised his glass, swirling the blood in it as if it were wine, obviously trying not to appear too eager to down it. “Look, I’m right in thinking you lot aren’t into sex the way we are, right? I picked that up right?”

“Is there a point to this line of questioning?”

“See, the thing is,” he finally raised the glass to his lips, and any attempt at detachment flew away as his words were momentarily cut off by the attempt at a sip turning into his guzzling it all dry. He at least did a decent job of picking up his thread of thought where it had left off, as though the gap hadn’t happened, “the way she acts whenever you come up… no offense Boss but I can’t say _why_, seeing as I’m pretty sure Strauss has offered her a better setup than the scraps you’ve given her, but if she were still human I’d say she wanted to tackle you into the nearest bed and not let you up again until neither of you are walking straight.”

LaCroix paused for a moment. He wouldn’t have thought his ghoul was capable of saying anything that could surprise him, but that did it. He was used to thinking of the fledgling as a wild card to be viewed with suspicion, he wouldn’t have expected there might be such a simple method at hand to secure her loyalty more firmly. If Mercurio’s instincts could be trusted on this, and LaCroix wasn’t sure that he’d want to risk making himself vulnerable before her on his say-so. 

He tried to make the pause seem like he’d been thinking of the best answer rather than a sign of surprise when he suggested, “If you’re ever in Hollywood I recommend visiting Vesuvius if you’d like to develop a more rounded view of our possible thirsts; the reaction would be more likely if she were Toreador, but it’s not impossible for her to still be interested in more petty pleasures even after her first drink.” He thought back on the room where she’d first been found, the obviously used condoms littering it. He would never admit it—her sire’s execution had been controversial enough, for all that the rules which governed them made it clear that his actions had been in the right, that LaCroix couldn’t afford to show any doubt about his motives—but he was never entirely sure whether he’d gone into that night intending to embrace the fledgling in his lust, or had simply wanted to have her as a human would and gotten carried away. Neither option was much like a Tremere. “The circumstances in which she was embraced weren’t exactly standard, it may have had an effect on her.”

“Well, now you know, if you ever get bored and feel like dabbling in the kinda pleasures of the flesh us mundane types get up to again I can guarantee she’d be in your bed in a minute, no strings attached… unless you went ‘em to be.” Mercurio put down the glass and let his hand fall to the table beside it, absently tapping his fingers as his face twisted like he was working up the will to say something before he finally spat out, “So maybe try to be kind, when she’s around? She’s a good kid, Boss, and if you don’t manage to drive her away it’s pretty obvious she’ll walk straight into any corner of hell you ask her to. I don’t know if that’s gonna last with the way you’ve been going.”

“I will consider your advice, Mercurio, but only because you’ve always been a loyal retainer, not because of how ‘good’ a _Tremere_ might have made herself seem to be to you. But listen to mine in return; the Camarilla can be as vicious as the Sabbat when they wish to, and the only allies worth relying on within it are those whose loyalties won’t be turned by something as petty as their feelings being hurt.” He turned his back to Mercurio, a wordless dismissal, but continued to consider the problem of the fledgling even as he gathered up his things behind LaCroix and left.

_Kind_, Mercurio had said, obviously meaning to give her gentle words and simpler tasks. The first was ridiculous, he could hardly treat her differently than anyone else without shrieks of favoritism filling the air. And the second wasn’t even an option if he wanted it to be. Loathe though he was to admit it, when it came to more dangerous missions she was the most useful tool he’d found in the entire infernal city. The way Nines and his troupe stirred up discontent even other members of the Camarilla were too openly questioning of their Prince. 

That was a problem which would be solved soon enough, but in the meantime she would need to remain his clenched fist within the city. 

Then it only came down to Mercurio’s own suggestion. LaCroix had never been one to bother with the breath of life, but if he could ensure that he wasn’t pulling her into his bed only to find a knife in his back, well…

Perhaps it was a thought to keep in mind.


End file.
